Hybrid vehicles change looks

Some are identical to regular models - except at the pump

Oct. 29, 2013

Mike Courtelis of Franklin loves his new Ford Fusion hybrid's performance and comfort, but especially its fuel economy. It runs on a combination of regular gas and electricity. / Steven S. Harman / The Tennessean

Hybrid vehicles are going mainstream, and they’re no longer just odd-looking designs made to stand out from the crowd.

To underscore that trend, Honda on Thursday will introduce the 2014 Accord Hybrid sedan, a vehicle that looks so much like its regular gasoline counterpart that it’s hard to tell them apart — until they get to the gas pumps.

There, the Accord Hybrid takes about 1.5 gallons less to fill up, yet still goes much farther on a tank of gasoline than its non-hybrid sibling, thanks to its industry-leading EPA ratings of 50 mpg city/45 highway/47 combined.

Prices begin at $29,155 for the base Accord Hybrid, and run as high as $34,905 for the top-end model with leather interior and navigation. In comparison, four-cylinder versions of the gasoline-only Accord start at $22,755 with an automatic transmission, and have EPA ratings of 27 city/36 highway/30 combined.

With the launch of the new gasoline-electric Accord, there will be five affordable midsize family sedans that can be purchased with a full hybrid drive system. The others are the Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima. Chevrolet offers a mild-hybrid version of its midsize Malibu sedan, as well.

Coming soon, although Nissan won’t say exactly when, will be a hybrid version of the Smyrna-built Altima sedan, said Pierre Loing, vice president for product strategy and planning at Franklin-based Nissan North America.

The challenge Nissan faces is making the case for a hybrid Altima when its gasoline model already has the best fuel economy among the sedans in its class, he said — up to 38 mpg highway and 31 mpg combined.

Hybrid versions of these midsize sedans — the best-selling vehicle segment — have raised the mileage bar considerably. The Fusion claims 47 city/47 highway/47 combined, which is second only to the new Accord, and the two are pushing closer to the Obama administration’s mandate of 55 mpg for cars within the next decade.

The Camry Hybrid isn’t as high — at 43 city/39 highway/41 combined — and the Hyundai and Kia models, which share their technology, are farther behind, at 36 city/40 highway/38 combined.

“With the Fusion claiming a very high 47, and now the Accord 50 mpg, we’re looking at a different system for the Altima that can be competitive with that,” Loing said. “It can’t be below that — that’s obvious.”

Also a consideration is the price premium consumers must pay to get the hybrid system versus the same vehicle with a conventional drive train. That can range from no extra money for the hybrid in the 2014 Lincoln MKZ premium midsize sedan — where hybrid and regular models are priced exactly the same — to up to $3,000 for the Accord, Camry and others in the non-premium midsize class.

“Because of the high performance of the Fusion and Accord, the Altima will take some time for us,” Loing said.

Consumers are warming up to hybrids now that they’re starting to look like regular cars, said Gregory Fite, sales manager at Darrell Waltrip Honda in Franklin, which is still waiting to get its first Accord Hybrid.

“But right now, hybrids are still mostly a niche market,” he said. “That’s changing as their appearance goes more mainstream, and I think the Accord will do well because it is a full-size model.”

The groundbreaking Toyota Prius, which now comes in three sizes, still leads the hybrids in fuel economy, with 52 city/48 highway/50 combined for the basic compact hatchback model. But the styling has been enough of an oddity that it’s kept the Prius from becoming the car for everyone.

That’s why Toyota has been adding hybrid versions to its regular models, with the newest being the 2013 Avalon full-size sedan. The company also has a hybrid version of its seven-passenger Highlander crossover utility vehicle, which was the target that Nissan used to develop its newest hybrid: the Smyrna-built 2014 Pathfinder crossover.

“Our Pathfinder Hybrid is $3,000 more than a similarly equipped regular Pathfinder, while Toyota charges a $7,000 premium for the Highlander Hybrid,” Loing said.

With a four-cylinder gasoline engine coupled with an electric motor, the Pathfinder Hybrid has almost identical power ratings as the regular V-6 gasoline model. But its EPA ratings are 25 city/28 highway/26 combined, compared with the gasoline-only model’s 20/26/22.

The lowest-priced Pathfinder Hybrid is the mid-level SV model at $35,110, Nissan announced Friday; that compares with $32,110 for the gasoline-only Pathfinder SV. The top model is the Platinum, which is $44,350 with the hybrid system, or $41,350 for the gas-only version.

Nissan also plans a hybrid version of its smaller Rogue compact crossover, whose latest generation debuts as a 2014 model in mid-November, the newest product of the Smyrna plant.

Retired insurance executive Mike Courtelis, 75, of Franklin recently bought the Fusion hybrid, and then went back and bought a Ford C-Max hybrid compact van for his wife. It’s EPA rated at 45 city/40 highway/43 combined.

“We like to travel, and since we’re both retired, we wanted vehicles with better fuel economy,” he said Friday. “We took a trip to Tullahoma this morning and I was getting 48-50 mpg with the Fusion. We’ve already taken it to Massachusetts.”

It was the Fusion’s interior roominess and more conventional styling that led Courtelis to choose it over the Prius, which he also considered, he said.

He and his wife also calculated “the payback,” he said – how long it takes to recoup the extra cost of the hybrid system through the savings at the gas pump.

“The payback is there, especially as gas prices continue to rise,” he said.